Chronic homelessness has dropped nine percent thanks in part to the City of Atlanta and local agencies’ dedication to rehoming people, a new report states.
Partners for HOME (Housing Opportunities Made for Everyone) found that pandemic-related homelessness is stabilizing. “We are at a critical inflection point — on the cusp of decreasing homelessness in Atlanta,” the 2025 Point In Time Count report states.
The Point In Time Count is a census of unhoused people that occurs in late January, as federally mandated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is an approximate number, used to gauge changes over time. In Atlanta, the count is done annually.
In January 2020, more than 3,240 people were experiencing homelessness in the City of Atlanta. In January 2025, the numbers are down to 2,867 people.
In Atlanta, nearly 200 nonprofit, government, and community agencies work together to end homelessness, led by Partners for HOME. These agencies created a strategic goal in 2023 to Reduce and End Homelessness by closing encampments and providing housing and services to their residents, thereby increasing access to housing for all people experiencing homelessness – especially for the most vulnerable.
The chronically homeless population is the most vulnerable, and highly prioritized by Partners for HOME. These are individuals with “a longterm, disabling condition” ranging from severe mental illness, addiction, chronic medical conditions, or a combination thereof, and have long spans of homelessness.
“We need the right types of housing at the right affordability with the right complement of supportive services to ensure [vulnerable] folks have access to housing and can stabilize in housing and not return to homelessness,” said Partners for HOME CEO Cathryn Vassell.
Homelessness factors include the affordability of rent and the availability of affordable housing, but other factors include mental health, chronic medical conditions, addiction, and network impoverishment (a person’s support system).
Since 2022, 1,850 households have been housed through homelessness response initiatives alone.
“There’s a lot of movement in and out of the homeless system on any given day. About half of the number of people who were surveyed this year were not in our data system yet, so they had not yet accessed resources or services,” Vassell said. “People come in and out of homelessness all the time.”
Drilling down into the demographics:
- 95 percent of homeless people who have been counted in Atlanta are living without children;
- 73 percent identify as male, 26 percent identify as female, and about 1 percent identify as trans, non-binary, or multiple genders;
- 5 percent makes up households with adults and minor children, which totals about 131 families in 2025;
- Black people are disproportionately represented. While 47 percent of the city’s population is Black, 83 percent of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness are Black;
- Youth and veteran homelessness declined 6 percent and 3 percent, respectively;
- Homeless families with children have seen an increase of 14 percent, or 400 people.
“We have continued to focus our efforts on rehousing and getting folks out of homelessness as quickly as possible, and [Mayor Andre Dickens’] administration is certainly squarely focused on that, as well as on increasing the availability of affordable housing across our community,” Vassell said.
Dickens has committed to building 500 quick-delivery housing units with wraparound services by the end of 2025. The Melody, Atlanta’s first rapid housing community, is a community of 40 micro-units made from shipping containers. In December 2024, 729 Bonaventure opened with 23 furnished apartments in Virginia Highland.
“Another 400 units are in development or under contract as we speak, so we will deliver over 1,000 new units of supportive housing between now and the end of the end of this year … which is the most supportive housing we’ve ever been able to deliver in in such a short period of time,” Vassell said.